Traffic education is essential for equipping children sufficiently to become safe road users.

Traffic education is needed to encourage safe traffic activities. Traffic education is very essential for every age group. Traffic education for educated road users can be easily done through media, T.V. and video. For uneducated road users, road safety education should be simple and purposeful. Regular road Safety programs are to be organized at schools, colleges, industries, public places, etc. Propaganda (e.g. Miking at the road junction) and exhortation are powerful tools in the road safety campaign. Various countries start traffic education right from the primary schools, for instance, in the Netherlands, traffic lessons are taught in primary school and the first years of secondary school. In these lessons, children of 4-14 years old are taught traffic rules and the meaning of road signs, and they learn to use this knowledge in practice (Institute for Road safety Research, Netherland).

People should be made aware of Traffic Rules & Regulations like Parking, No Parking, Use of Speed Breakers and Traffic Signs, provisions of Motor Vehicles Act, Accident Prevention tips, Tips for motorcyclists, Tips for Cyclists, Accident Scene, Traffic Control, etc. The main goal of road safety is to prevent casualties. Children are the high risk group in traffic. Traffic education is essential for equipping children sufficiently to become safe road users. Only formal education at school is not sufficient, but even more so is the education provided by parents. The mental development of children limits their capabilities in traffic, but by stimulating them this development can be speeded up slightly.

Traffic education mainly involves making the rules known and motivating each individual to follow the traffic rules and regulations. Traffic rules are meant to encourage a traffic flow which is as safe and smooth as possible. Breaking these rules result in an increased risk of crashes, or a more serious outcome. Enforcement of these rulesis a police task. Road accidents can occur for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are under our control while others may be unavoidable. We should always do what we can to reduce the possibility of avoidable accidents by paying attention to the road, adjusting our speed for poor weather, and following road signs. Traffic education is equally important to all road users. All the participants of road are equally responsible for the traffic safety. The drivers and pedestrians should have adequate information regarding road uses. For instance, the driver should know that he must stop at a red traffic signal and pedestrian should know that he must not cross the road at red traffic signal. This is an example of basic traffic regulation.

Some of the most common accidents can be avoided by teaching our drivers and pedestrians about the dire consequences that can result from even small mistakes. Every driver should take care to avoid common road violations. Driver’s education program shouldn’t simply teach the student how to drive a car, it should also teach the rules and regulations that enforce safety for all drivers. Consequently, obtaining driver license criteria should also be reviewed. Adequate knowledge of traffic rules and regulations should be ensured before issuing driving license. The driving school should teach about how to adjust speed for different conditions, how to distance oneself from other vehicles, and other fundamentals of driving.

One person’s mistake may kill innocent people so traffic safety rules and regulations are to be strictly enforced by the traffic police. Road traffic accidents kill an estimated 1.3 million people and injure 50 million people per year globally, and global road fatalities are forecast to reach 1.9 million by 2020 (Commission for Global Road Safety, Make Roads Safe: A Decade of Action for Road Safety (London, Commission for Global Road Safety, 2009). This statistics reveals that road safety aspect is very crucial across the globe. Traffic education is one of the options that could be used as a tool to control the road accidents.

In a poor country like Nepal where literacy rate is subsequently lower, there is higher chance of road accidents because of unawareness. Therefore traffic education could be started from primary schools. For others, awareness programs like free seminar need to be organized.

Every time we get behind the wheel of our vehicles, we have the possibility of affecting not only our own lives, but of others as well. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance that we take driving education seriously and do our best to stay safe on the road.

Ashish Gajurel studied Transportation system (M.Sc.) in Technical University Munich. Currently, he is teaching supply chain management/logistics at Nepal College of management (affiliated to KU).He is a lecturer of
Transport Economics (M.Sc. in Transportation Engineering) at Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk.

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